next on fox 45 morning news. the letter however, asked the jury not to discuss this matter until january 6th. >> the jurors in the trial of mayor sheila dixon back in court today. why they're talking to a judge about-facebook. results of a probe into the attempted christmas terror plot. the new measures h designed to keep you safe in the sky. it's testing how baltimore is putting its playoff fever on display. good morning. it's wednesday, january 6th. i'm patrice harris. we begin this morning with a school delay to tell you about.

garrett county schools are opening two hours late this morning. two more hours to stay warm under the covers. meteorologist steve fertig is here to tell us how cold it's going to be if you come out of those covers. i think people are going to walk outside with the covers. >> not a bad idea. it's cold out there, and the wind is making it feel chillier and the winds are high to boot. take a look at sky radar and this is what you will find. au few flurries but not serious in terms of accumulating totals. toward allegheny county you may run into a couple of sligh sligy accumulating snow falls. there could be more than an inch in some spots. we will tell you what is coming following the flurries. there could be a couple of flurries out there. don't be surprise if there's some flurries by you. we are warming up quite a bit. i'm being sarcastic.

33 at 6:00 p.m. 37 degrees will be the high temperature at 2:00 p.m. and it there could be flurries around. the northwest winds a at 10-20 miles per hour. we will talk more about what is to come and that is the accumulating snow. how much, i will let you know in a pew minutes. candace dold is here with the traffic edge. >> reporter: more snow. if you heading on the roadways, we need to talk about the beltway. it's a fuel leak that is from a diesel truck. i want to tell you what the scene looks like. here it is at north point boulevard. you can see a lot of flashing lights and crews are on the scene. now it was completely shutdown on the outer loop lanes but now it's re-opened, the traffic is moving by, but of course, it will grab your attention if you're traveling through the area. as for other main lines, looking much better out there. 95 on the northbound lanes from the fort mchenry tunnel headed

toward 895 looking at a 5 minute clip at 55 miles per hour. the outer loop lanes of the beltway from 95 up toward 83, the volume is increasing, an 11 11-minute ride as 54 miles per hour, and a nice and calm pace from 83 to 795, 8 minutes at 54 miles per hour. that is a look at your morning travels, patrice, over to you. five jurors in mayor sheila dixon's theft trial will head back to court this morning to answer questions about possible misconduct involving facebook. the defense is trying to prove the mayor do not receive a fair trial. megan gilliland joins us live from city hall with more on the story. good morning, megan. >> reporter: good morning, patrice. this is a very big deal for mayor sheila dixon. while she awaits her fate at he city hall, her defense team will be down here at the courthouse,

trying to prove that mayor sheila dixon did not receive a fair trial. the jurors talked on the facebook about the trial while the trial was going on. judge sweeney told the jurors to appear in court with print outs of the conversations. he asked them not to continue talking about the case on the social networking site, but since then there's been several more posts, including one that jokes about how they need to act as if they don't even know each other and another curses the judge. >> i think had judge said, i do not want you communicating and not talking to each other and certainly no more facebook until you come back to court, that would have made it clear to every juror to seize communications. >> this is going to be a hotly contested hearing on wednesday. >> reporter: some jurors will be asked about not fully disclosing information during jury selection. there's a chance that some of them may have to take the stand

today. dixon's defense team is hoping that today might lead to a new trial. if it doesn't, she may be forced to step down. yesterday she told the baltimore sun quote, not a good feeling. megan gilliland, fox 45 morning news. a 14-year-old girl is hit and killed by an amtrak train on her way to school. it happened on the tracks in middle river. police say she missed her school bus and was taken a shortcut with a friend to the high school. the two were walking on the tracks, when a train came up from behind, the friend was able to jump out of the way but sickles were hit and killed. >> kids don't think nothing is going to happen to them, but it does. >> we were at the school are sickle's produce brother is sen. police and amtrak are investigating. children are routinely seen walking on the tracks in that area.

we want to know what you think, should train companies be more responsible to make sure that people don't have access to the tracks? it's the question of the day. we will take our call in the 7:00 hour. or you can he go to foxbaltimore.com and tell us what you think, send us a tweet to fox baltimore. or text your answer to 45203. enter fox 45a for yes, and fox 45b for no. a sex a offender who was released is now accused charged with several counts including child abuse and sexual assault of a minor. keys fondled a little girl while at church. he was hired by st. episcopal church, to do odd jobs. he just got out of prison after serving 14 year eight years of r

sentence for child sex abuse. just in case you're one of the few folks in the city who don't follow the ravens, this week the team and the town are giving you no choice but to take notice. the ravens are literally painting the town purple for the playoffs. joel d smith is live near city hall near that new artwork. make sure you don't step on the paint anymore. >> reporter: they are painting the town purple. they're using paint, literally and using light to paint as well. very pretty scene if you look at the tower. really the entire city going purple. you get the playoff feel no matter where you are in the city. a lot of folks are excited about what is happening this weekend. the game is four days away, but some the biggest fans seem ready for the game to begin now. the painting began yesterday morning. and that is a version at federal hill. if it's a ravens event, the fans

will show up decked out in their sunday best. they got to see real ravens from the maryland zoo. that is good stuff. the ravens mascot were doing the thing to bring the city together. and to cure on the team and some that included trash talking about the other team. >> we're going to go all the way. >> the raiive fanthe ravens fano be as . >> reporter: wnac radio is sponsoring the trip to foxborough to see the game. they filled up one bus and they will fill up another. we will talk to them. joel d smith, fox 45 morning news. coming up healthcare reform could cost new people ne big bu. why a new system would cost them more than now. i'm going to take you inside

charm city is painted purple this city, but if you still haven't gotten your fill of maryland sports you can now. jessica starr is live with how you can do that now, with the hot spot. >> reporter: this is an event where they have received top honors. and they are very kind to donate this so the sports exhibit.

i'm joined by the chief curator. >> good morning, welcome to the sports legend. >> reporter: a lot of things on exhibit here, tell me more about it. >> and they with wanted to feature never seen objects from our collection and other's collection, the attic is sort of the collective attic. we pulled together seen or 17 items never seen with unique stories. >> reporter: we are looking at dorothy hamill's skating outfit. is she from maryland and how did you get this? >> she moved to maryland and she has been a great friend of the museum. we picked up the phone ask said, hey, dorothy, we would like to display your dress and skates. she said no problem. >> reporter: this is one of the many things that are on display here throughout the exhibit. you definitely need to come down and check out all of the exciting things on display. you can get more information i wilbylogging on to our website.

we will see more flurries in the morning, decreasing clouds, and turning partly sunny in the afternoon for a full forecast and a look ahead to some snow by friday morning. let's head to steve in the sky watch center. even though we're not expecting heavy snow today, we will have flurries. take it slow anyway even though the heaviest snow as jessica indicated could be coming our way following this event. today as you see on the sky watch hd radar, we are seeing a few snow showers out there. as we zoom around the border the mason dixon line, to the west of taneytown. we are looking at snow showers there toward frederick county and also toward allegheny county, washington county in between. there's a few snow showers as you can see, but it's not accumulating a whole lot today. if you're in the western

counties or running into that direction, you may run into a little more activity because the up flow will bring showers to garrett county that could accumulate a little bit. this is what we're looking at as far as in terms of advisory, our winter weather advisory for the western part of allegheny county with the best chance of seeing any kind of accumulation and even there talking about an inch or two maybe in that part of the state. elsewhere, there's flurries moving around, we could make for slippery roads. the temperatures are chilly. 29 for salisbury and 29 in hagerstown. 16 in oakland and with winds at 10-15 miles per hour as we sit between the low pressure to the northeast and high pressure to the northwest, we get the temperatures that feel more like they're in the teens this morning, and this morning like they're in the upper 20s and low 30s instead of the mid-30s we should reach, even though, of course, that is not very warm. the blue area indicating snow, best chance being this morning and it dissipates as we get into

the afternoon hours. partly sunny skies may result this afternoon. then you see the big area of blue. that is an indication of more snow on the way. thursday night could move into the western counties, this indicating 7:00 p.m. for he those counties. for the rest of us, 10:00 p.m. overnight. now we could be talking about accumulating snow fall for rest of us. as we take a look at those numbers, here is what we're expecting as far as the area, thanks to the cold air in place and the low pressure that is going to be moving across the alberta clipper could be bringing us 1-3 inches and 1-3 inches for the eastern shore. 33 degrees for the high, a west wind at 10-15 miles per hour making it feel chillier. the central part of the making it feel chillier. northwest wind 10-20 miles per hour. back to west we go. a little bit of accumulation, the further west you go. 33 degrees for high with a 13-20-mile-an-hour wind. 29, breezy and cold, partly cloudy with a northwest wind at

10-15 miles per hour making it feel a bit chillier. getting through the day today, look for temperatures to get to 34 by noon. sitting the high of 37 by 3:00 p.m., the skies clear out a little bit more. 37 for the high, then comes the snow fall, the evening for the western counties, the rest of us evening into overnight. friday morning we could have the biggest problem on the highways. mostly clear for sunday, 30 degrees, it remains clear on monday and tuesday with a high of 35 and 34 respectively. iradar is available at foxbaltimore.com. you can use fox 45's powerful doppler radar to track incoming storms. the interactive tools let you see when rain or snow will be over your house. go to foxbaltimore.com and click on iradar. now we want to see what is happening on the roadways, here is candace dold with the traffic edge. >> reporter: thank you, steve. we are checking in on those actual speeds for you as the cards move over our sensors and so far things are looking pretty good out there. 60 miles per hour at the jfx at

61 traveling on the beltway moving through the pikesville region and bench and 58 on the west side of that beltway. some better news to report on the beltway, we have been dealing with a diesel fuel that has been leaking from a tractor trailer on utter loop lanes and we want to show you what that area looks like. it's smooth sailing, you would never know anything happened be but you are unfortunately, it was shutdown earlier. this into our newsroom that all lanes are open. at pulse chi highway pulaski hiw you what the lanes look, all the way down toward 95. on 95 the cars are cruising along moving toward the rosedale area, toward the merge and eventually toward the fort mchenry tunnel. here it is, building conditions are on the southbound lanes of 95, nothing to complain about on the northbound stretch heading toward the tunnel. that is a look at your morning travels, patrice, over to you. thank you, candace.

coming up a new smart phone is on the market, the features you can get on google's next one. healthcare reform could cost young people big bucks. why the new

we're supposed to be about 3 to 4 years from seeing the effects of healthcare reform. but even before changes are implemented, it appears the successor failure of the measures could hinge on one group of people. jim engel has more. >> reporter: those who are more likely to feel the cost of reform will be the young feel who for the first time ever be required to buy insurance whether they want it or not. >> the census bureau tells us there's 18 million people between the ages of 18 and 25 who are uninsured, roughly half of the uninsured population are younger people in that age group. >> reporter: there will be

fines for those who do not get insurance at $95 a year, eventually rising to 750 and $2,250 a year depending on your income. in the house it's 2.5% of your income up to the cost of average national premium. >> the fines are relatively low, $750 for an individual who doesn't sign up for health insurance, meanwhile, some of the costs of the individual coverage or family policy could be as high as $10,000 or $14,000. >> reporter: it is absolutely critical for young healthy people to buy insurance, because if they don't, premiums for everyone else will go up as a result of all of the new requirements on insurance companies. >> no preexisting conditions. you're not going to get a big hospital bill because you had a catastrophic illness or injury. >> if you don't have a mandate that gets the young people who are cheaper, you will get the

average premiums rise, there's no way around that. >> reporter: but they created reforms that created incentive not do buy insurance you can get insurance he anytime you want it, making it easier to wait. >> you can buy an insurance policy in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. you pay the fines stay out of the insurance pools and at the moment when you need it you can go out and buy it. >> reporter: the other incentive is both houses changed how much they can charge people. >> if you charge people a fair price, a 50 or 60 years old should pay six times as much as a 20-year-old. in the senate bill it says it can only be a 2-1 difference. >> the average premium for everybody is going to go up. in particular the young people will bear a disproportionate cost. >> that will lead a lot of them to pay the fine instead of enrolling in the insure. >> reporter: the senate tries

to make it easier by offering a bear bones plan. if they don't get insurance, everyone and the nation as a whole will pay much much more. in washington, jim engel, fox news. coming up, president ow obaa reviews how a man nearly blue up a plane on christmas day. the new smart phone is o thanks for coming back out. sure. i think you might have hooked it up wrong, though. yea, we're getting way too many channels.

no, no. that's -- that's standard. fios also comes with 11,000 free movies and shows on demand per month. ah, standard. gotcha. a certain somebody says "thank you". tell him "he's welcome", but it's still standard. he's happy to be back with his friends. is he? [ male announcer ] hundreds of channels, thousands of movies, and three times more very satisfied customers than comcast. this is beyond cable. this is fios. call the verizon center for customers with disabilities at 800-974-6006 tty/v.

> investors held back on tuesday after rallying monday. the dow dropped 12 points to close at 10572. the nasdaq and s&p 500 edge up slightly. googled unveiled its entry into the smart phone market. the phone is only available through an online store with t mobile as the official service provider but other carries will be invited to sell plans. the plan costs $180 with service or $530 on its own. it features a touch screen and voice enabled keyboard. and runs on the android key pad. sales of ford, toyota, chrysler showed increases. most beat analyst expectations.

it exceeded sales, better than last year, except for august when cash for clunkers boosted sales. only 45% of u.s. workers are satisfied with their jobs. that's the lowest figure since recordkeeping began in 1957. workers under 25 were found to be the least happy with their jobs. for business brief, i'm stan case. coming up the ravens paint the town purple, plus how you can enjoy a bus trip to the game with tons of other ravens fans this weekend. >> reporter: the jurors who convicted mayor sheila dixon of embezzlement are back in t>ñó

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welcome back to fox fry morning news. 6:29 is the time. we begin this morning with the school delays. garrett county schools are opening once again two hours late this morning. meteorologist steve fertig is here with a look at the forecast and more cold. yeah, absolutely of th. it's freezing, literally and the winds factored look at. we are 30 degrees at baltimore, the same for d.c., 29 in hagerstown, 29 this salisbury, only 16 in oakland. you factor in the 15-20-mile-an-hour winds and closer to 15 throughout the area and it's making to feel like 3 degrees in oakland, 18 in

salisbury and hagerstown the same. definitely chilly with the snow showers, there's a few flurries out there, nothing heavy today but a few flurries to deal with to make slippery roads to be care. what we're watching is the blue area moving into the western counties, but definitely the one that will follow that. you can see the swath of blue area that indicates snow as we move into thursday need and into friday. i will let you know how much that will be as we get into the full forecast in a few minutes. right now let's see what candace dold has to tell us about the roadways and the traffic embed. >> reporter: thank you, steve. we don't have any weather related incidents. it's looking clear as far as accidents is concerned on 95. look at the volume filtering in on the northbound stretch and the southbound stretch. making the approach toward the beltway. farther down on 95, running from the fart mchenry tunnel, running toward the beltway, it's

going to be smooth sailing, an 8-minute drive at 52 miles per hour. speaking of the beltway, from 95 up toward 83, an 11-minute ride at 54 miles per hour. it seems to be with just an 8 minute clip from 83 to 795. the west side of the beltway, so far so good from 795 down toward 95, 12 minutes at 54 miles per hour. that is a look at the morning travels. patrice, back over to you. five of the 12 jurors who convicted mayor dixon of embezzlement will be in court this morning and this time they're the ones answering the questions. good morningood morning, megan. >> reporter: good morning, patrice. on the eve of this evening, mayor sheila dixon told the sun that the prospect of stepping down as mayor is not the best

feeling but it could become a reality if the defense team is not able to convince the judge today that she did not receive a fair trial. dixon's attorneys allege that five. jurors became friends on facebook and talked on about the case on the social networking site while the trial was going on. judge sweeney requested that they return to court with a printout of the conferencier conversations. he asked them not to talk about the case online. since then they joked about themselves on facebook saying they need to act as though they don't know each other. >> if all they're saying, we have to go back tomorrow, see you tomorrow, today was a tough day, it probably has no bearing whatsoever. if they down to the nitty gritty, this is how we're going to influence juror x or this is how we're going to do this or this is how we're going to do that it could have a real significant bearing, but there's no indication of that at this point. >> reporter: some jurors will be asked about not fully

disclosing information during jury selection. there's a chance they might have to take the stand today, again the defense trying to prove that the mayor did not get a fair trial and get the guilty verdict thrown out. for now the mayor is still scheduled to be sentence january 21st. live from city hall this morning, megan gilliland, fox 45 morning news. maryland leaders say no to a pay raise. the question is will members of the general assembly do the same. the compensation commission recommended a $2,000 pay raise for members of the senate and house of delegates in either 2013 or 2014. if the unemployment rate drops to 5% or lower. house speaker michael bush and senate president mike miller have said now is not the time to consider those raises. the general assembly will vote on the measure sometime next week. a former state lawmaker plans to announce his candacey

for governor today. george owings is expected to challenge governor o'malley in this year's democratic primary. owings served as former governor ehrlich secretary of veterans affairs. >> i always believed the democratic party, at least i have been told my entire adult life is that the democratic party is large enough that all can walk under the tent. >> meanwhile ehrlich has not announced if he is running for his old seat. congressman frank kratovil has competition in maryland's first district race. state anderson andy harris will run against kratovil. harris lost a close race in 2008 to kratovil. the first democracy to win the district in 18 years. harris said he wants to end court legislation. >> i fought against billion dollars tax increases and i have fought about billion dollars spending increases ssments i

i have always put my constituents first and voted that way in legislature. i will continue to vote that way if i become the next congressman in the maryland's first district. >> the district includes the eastern shore and parts of anne arundel, baltimore and harford county. from the tower to city hall, the passion for purple is taking hold of baltimore this week. the ravens are painting the town purple to get the fans excited for the playoffs and in a town like this it doesn't take that much. >> reporter: good morning, patrice, the fresh paint is here and the playoff atmosphere is alive and well. 1 of the folks that helped to get the playoff atmosphere going is heather, a busy time of year for you. >> busy time of year, but it's a good thing. >> reporter: definitely busy. say this looks perfect and you

agree, because it is, right? >> it's the same stin sill and logo that we use on all of our fields. >> reporter: how long does it take to get something like this down on a place like he city hall. >> it took an hour and a half yesterday, so not too bad. >> reporter: you have a lot. >> reporter: you have a lot of event going on. tell us what is going to happen on friday. >> we will the whole fanfare. >> reporter: you think that binning will make the city go crazy and go playoff crazy. >> definitely, the fans feed the players their energy. >> reporter: you talk to the players and they agree. >> they told me that. >> reporter: heather is here we will be talking with her the next half hour as well. we will be talking about a special bus trip to foxborough that you can be a part of. bruce cunningham will be in foxborough for the game against the new england patriots this weekend. he will have live reports on saturday and sunday night on fox

45 news at 10:00 and of course, on sports unlimited. coming up president obama criticizes airport security after a man nearly bombs a christmas day flight. the changes he is promising now. we don't have a lot of accidents on the roadways, but we have our shares of cars. you can see the volume is building there. what do ot

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coming up on 6:40. take a look at the sky watch hd radar, cold enough for snow falling in some spots east of taneytown. can you see areas where there could be a few snow showers. we will take a look at that in a moment. at the composite image moving along the composite mason dixon line, indicating showers toward hagerstown more pervasive and heavier too, as you look at points toward the mountains. it's not going to be accumulating snow fall for most of us, at least not today. i say that because there's a chance of accumulating snow fall as you move into late tomorrow night and into friday morning especially. in the meantime, the great lakes not frozen over. we see a great lake-effect snow, and disturbance helping to

produce showers this morning. a light snow and could make the roadways slippery. meanwhile we're talking about a winter weather advisory for the western part of the allegheny county and a winter weather barning where the help of the mountains could produce more snow falling there an a kuehl lyings o--accumulation of an in. it will make tomorrow more interesting. 29 in salisbury, the same for hagerstown, out to the west oakland at 16 degrees, with the winds up 10-15 miles per hour, out of the west, northwest it's going to make it feel chillier. it feels like 18 in hagerstown, it feels like 18 as well as in salisbury. the temperatures will warm up some today, but the biggest concern is the snow showers that are on the way for tomorrow. here on the future scan model indicating snow showers for the western part of the state, that would be the best chance of seeing some snow, there could be snow flurries moving through the area. it's system getting into our

region, the clipper, if you will, moving toward the east and moving over us, by tuesday evening for the western counties and overnight into the early morning on friday that we see the best chance of an accumulating he snow fall, how much snow, you might be wondering, about an inch or two. we may be upping the totals as it gets closer. 1-3 inches for the southern part of the eastern shore. for today, don't be surprised by the flurries. today is not the accumulating snow. a 10-15-mile-an-hour wind will make it feel chillier. central part of the state, getting up to 22 degrees, a 10-way to-mile-an-hour wind will make it feel that the temperatures are below freezing. back to the west looking at temperatures at 33 degrees, a chance of accumulating snow as we mentioned with a 15-20-mile-an-hour wind which is going to keep us feeling chilly. a breezy and cold night with 15-20-mile-an-hour wind. tomorrow the 33-degree high, and

in comes the snow showers for later thursday and overnight into your friday. i think friday morning may be the most active period so the morning commute is something to keep in mind t mind that will re extra time. mostly cloudy and clear for sunday through tuesday. 33 and 35 for monday ask and tuesday. you can use fox 45 powerful doppler radar to track incoming storms. go to foxbaltimore.com and click oirkclick iradar. let's check out the roadways with candace dold. she is here with the traffic edge. candace. >> reporter: you are checking the actual speeds out there it's hurting to slow down on 95. 38 miles per hour traveling near the whitemarsh area and it's much better traveling through the city at the 395 exit, now at 64 miles per hour. and then right near the airport,

at 67, so if you do have a flight to catch, you're a hp okay. a-okay. we want to talk moving through the catonsville region. it's the volume na is starting to fill up the lanes on the outer loop and the inner loop direction up toward the 70 exit. right at liberty road, the usual busy spot it's indeed that way this morning. here it is a lot of cars that are starting to congregate in there on both directions. taking it through the top side, those cars are in the green heading toward greenspring avenue and actually toward 83. on 83 it has been incident free. we will show you what it looks like on the northbound and southbound end at the 695 exit and again still no problems to report. however, there's a problem to report in jarrettsville. an accident that complete leet y shuts down northbound 34.

new this morning, an suv slams into a parkville restaurant. two vehicles collided near ellis and old harford road last night. one vehicle carrying four people hit the side of the valley view inn. the driver ran off but police caught him later. police are still investigating. a 14-year-old girl is hit and killed by an amtrak train on her way to school. it happened at middle river. ana mary stickle missed her school bus and was taking a walk with her friend to high school. the friend was able to walk out of the way but stickle was hit and killed. president obama says u.s. intelligence failed to connect the dots to prevent a near-misterror attack on christmas day. to make sure that it doesn't happen again, the u.s.

government has overhauled how it compiles possible terror watch lights and no-fly lists. he will stop the transfer of guantanamo bay to yemen. he reiterated his plan to close the prison camp. samantha hayes is live from washington. >> reporter: after a meeting with his national security team on tuesday, president obama called for a reform and also said that u.s. intelligence failed to put crucial bits of information together. president barack obama addressing security concerns after the attempted bombing of a northwest flight on christmas day said known information about the suspect, umar farouk abdulmuttallab should have kept him off of that plane. >> in other words, this was not a failure to collect intelligence, it was a failure to integrate and understand the intelligence we already had. the information was there. agencies and analysts who needed it had a access to it and our

professionals were trained to look for it and bring it altogether. >> reporter: now the threshold for information that qualifies a suspicious individual for a watch list has been lowered. in some cases, one credible source could be enough to keep someone from flying. >> it's time to tell the american people that the government is doing something. >> reporter: the president has ordered his chief to complete a detailed this week which could lead to more reform. the president obama accused of being slow to react may be making changes politically according to former director of national intelligence. >> if there's any real outcome from this. suspect i will see president obama devoting more personal attention to overseeing these matters than he might have done heretofore. >> reporter: as for the investigation into the bombing attempt, the fbi says it has gained usable intelligence information from the suspect.

in washington i'm samantha hayes, patrice, back to you. samantha, one official described the security process as more of an art than a science, what were they trying to say. >> reporter: i think what he is trying to say in the past when they sort of had a checklist where a particular suspect had to have, a, b and c in order to be put on a watch list. her going to try to use better judgment in this case. we know that with this particular suspect his own father had alerted government officials and what officials in the state department, is that alone, let's say you have one really credible source, that alone can put a suspected individual on the watch list rather than having to, you know, fill out or be eligible by other certain requirements. >> as far as the new criteria for these terror watch lists is that all in place now or is it still being put in place? >> reporter: according to a high-level government official it's already in place. they have already applied these

new -- this new criteria and apparently some suspected individuals have been already placed on a no-fly list and others have lost their visas. >> samantha hayes reporting live from washington, thank you. coming up in our 7:00 hour. >> the washer is up to 75% more efficient than the machine it's replacing. >> they're supposed to help the environment and save you money, but do they live up to the promise? we put it to the will it work test. and for many school does not end at high school graduation. coming up next how baltimore schools are making at 800-974-6006 tty/v.

baltimore city schools are working hard to make sure that their students achieve at a higher level and in in cases just stay in school. they're focusing on what happens to their students after high school. dr. andres alonzo joins us this morning. >> good morning. >> how are you this morning. >> i'm great, happy new year to you. >> happy new year to you. >> now that the new year, you have to get kids ready for college. >> we have that there's a lot of kids graduating. what we he see is that they don't enroll in college. >> why is that? >> part of it is a lack of mop hey. thethey -- money. and they haven't figured out how to make it work with their finances. we have a big push to make sure that every graduating senior applies for federal financial aid. we want every senior to complete the fafsa form by february 21st.

there's almost $100 million available for every student. it makes no sense for any of our kids not to apply. we have having two fares, january 16th and january 23rd at success academy at our central office in north avenue from 10 to 2:00 p.m. in the afternoon where we want to explain to parents, you know, this is what this is about and trying to get -- try to get every single senior that we graduate able to continue their studies and not have to give up because they don't like -- they lack the circumstances. >> is there help actually filling out that afs fafsa form. it's tricky to say, and it's trickier to fill it out. >> the feds are trying to streamline it right now. it's complicated. i remember it, i'm sure you remember it as well, but there's no excuse for not doing it. it means too much for our kids.

the difference in lifetime earnings, between completing any type of college and not completing any college at all is amazing over the lifetime of a person. so we want our kids to have that kind of experience, go to school, i mean, it's fine if they go to a trade, they go into the army, all of those things are fine, but what we want is college access and if the circumstance -- if the kid is not able to stay on track because of academics, that is one thing and it's our responsibility to improve those outcomes, but when he we have so many students who have extraordinary potential and when we go back to them a year later or two years later, they tell us because they can't afford it. w we have the responsibility that each child completes that the form. we will do it for them if we have to.

>> there's an article on usa today saying a lot of good things about baltimore. >> there's a huge article talking about parochial and private school parents trying our public schools. it's a reflection of all of the improvements we're providing in our schools. this is a school system that once had almost 100,000 more students than it has today. >> wow! >> 40 years ago. and our ultimate aim is to get it back there. >> that's a big number to try to reach again. >> if we provide the quality, we have the greatest comparative advantage with the neighborhood, you know. >> it makes a difference. >> yeah, absolute she. >> dr. alonzo thank you so much and continued luck and success in the new year. >> thank you. coming up if you find yourself deep if debt, be careful. how to make sure that a debt settlement company doesn't scam you when you actually need help. >> reporter: the jurors who

convicted mayor sheila dixon eat fresh.

do green appliances really save money. good morning. it's wednesday, january 6th. i'm patrice harris. we have an update to a school delay we were telling you about all morning long. all morning long garrett county schools had been two hours late, but know we have word that garrett county schools are closed for the day. meteorologist steve fertig is joining us for the forecast. and you tell us that they have snow that we're not dealing with. >> reporter: that would be the only place, the western part of gal a a allegheny county andt

county is under a winter warning tonight. the rest of us, a couple of flurries around. we will be talking about a chance of an accumulating snow fall for the rest of us for thursday night into friday morning. it's a cold one to support snow. we are getting a northwesterly flow as the disturbance moves through bring us snow flurries throughout most of the area on and off, but no more accumulatin back to the west. it's not that snow so much but the snow to follow that is concerning the rest of us because that is going to involve the whole state, when we could see the possibility of at least a couple of inches of if not more moving in. as you can see it in there, the huge swath of blue moving in there in the overnight period tuesday through friday. flurries today, certainly a possibility, especially to the west. not as harsh tomorrow, without the snow at least for most of

the day we will be dealing with the mix of sun and clouds and temperatures that will be warmer. an accumulating snow fall on thursday night into friday bears watching. we will have more coming up in a few minutes from now. what about what is happening on the roadways. candace dold has a look at what is happening on the roadways. >> reporter: i got word that it's snowy on 83 and northern baltimore county and we have a slow go because of it. be aware that you will find that on the roadways there. as for other main lines, we're checking in on 95. an interesting situation here. we have wooden boxes that are actually blocking the right lane of southbound 95 at 195 near the airport. so we want to show you the scene and here it is. you can't really see the boxes but again be aware that that will grab your attention and of course, the volume is already starting to build especially on the southbound lanes. taking 95 a little bit farther back from the fort mchenry tunnel headed toward the beltway, we're looking at a 1 minute-delay and 1 minute travel time at 48 miles per hour.

and the beltway, well on the west side from 795 down toward 95, so far no incidents to report. a 12 minute clip at 54 miles per hour, and the same scene with just an 8-minute ride from 883 to 795. as for the 95, to the 83 portion, that volume is increasing at 12 minutes, 49 miles per hour. that's a look at the morning travels. patrice, back over to you. five jurors in mayor sheila dixon's theft trial will head back to court this morning to answer questions about possible misconduct involving facebook. the defense is trying to prove the mayor did not receive a fair trial. megan gilliland joins us from city hall with more, good morning, megan. >> reporter: good morning, patrice. this is a very big day for mayor sheila dixon. while she awaits her fate right here at city hall, her defense team will be in the courthouse just down the street from here, trying to prove that the mayor did not receive a fair trial.

now dixon's attorneys allege that some the jurors talked to each other about the case on facebook while the trial was going on. judge sweeney sent the jurors a letter last month telling them to appear in court today with the printout of the facebook conversations. he asked them not to continue talking about the case on the social networking site, but sense there's been several new posts including one that says they need to joke of how they don't know each other. another one even curses the judge. >> i think had judge sweeney said i do not want you communicating and talking to each other and certainly no more facebook until you come back to court, that would have made it more clear to every juror that they have to seize communications. this is going to be a hotly contested hearing on wednesday. >> reporter: some jurors will also be asked about not fully disclosing information during jury selection. there's a chance they might have to take the stand today. dixon's attorneys are hoping

that today's hearing will lead to a new trial. if it doesn't, then mayor sheila dixon may be forced to step down as mayor. she was quoted in the baltimore sun, saying it is not the best feeling. live from city hall, i'm megan gilliland, fox 4 45 morning new. a 14-year-old girl is hit and killed by an amtrak train on her way to school. it happened yesterday morning near the tracks near old olem's road near middle river. she was taking a walk to the school. the two were walking on the tracks when a train came up from behind. the friend was able to step out of the way but stickle was hit and killed. police and amtrak are investigating. neighbors say that children are routinely seen walking on the train tracks even he though thos warning signs. we want to know what you think.

should train companies be more potential for making sure that people don't have access to the tracks. you can call us or text newer yr answer at 4 45203. 45a for jes yes and 45b for no. just in case you're one of the folks who doesn't follow the ravens, this week the team and the town is giving you no choice but to take notice. the ravens are painting the city purple for the playoffs. joel d smith is live with some the artwork. >> reporter: if they the super bowl leave it here permanently. i like that, too. this is the stensil they used for all of the fields. once again, how long does it take them to put it down. >> it took an hour and a half yesterday. >> reporter: who does it?

>> the ground crews so the same guys that take care of all of our fields. >> reporter: you are on the way to the playoffs. everyone is in a good mood. they will be in a better mood if they win all of this. >> we have a fan facebook contest. all you have to do is up load a picture of yourself, friends or classmates and if you win the individual prize you win the autographed football by the team, it's the entire team who signed this. if you win the group, you have a visit from the player for your group. >> reporter: and this is for school? >> it's for schools. >> reporter: groups or anybody. >> girl scouts, boy scouts. >> reporter: you have a different incentive during playoff time to get thing going. you're in a good mood because it's playoff time. you're very busy and everybody else is in a good mood, too. do you think that it helps the team when the whole city is behind them. >> absolutely, the players feed off the fans. >> reporter: what do you have this friday. >> purple car van this friday all around baltimore.

you can check the locations where the cheerleaders and our front office staff will be giving away including autographed items. >> reporter: who you need to give away is a front yard with a stensil like this. >> that would be really cool. >> reporter: there's a bus trip going to foxborough, and we will tell you how can be involved with that. but really the football might be where it's at. coming up will the ravens turn down the pressure on tom brady to avoid penalties. coach john harbaugh has the answer in sports. and i'm jessica starr coming up this morning on the hometown hot spot, i'm going to take you inside of new exhibit at the

>>it's all about the ravens right now, but that doesn't mean that other maryland sports are for the birds. celebrate some the top sporting

moments and ago lights in maryland's history at sports legend museum. jessica starr is live there this morning, with a preview of our hometown hot spot. we have a lot of great moments to remember, jess. >> reporter: a lot of great moments and there's a lot that are on display and treasures from our attic is on display. and to get more information, we have the director here. >> thank you for having me. >> tell me where do you guys get your inspiration for doing this exhibit. >> we put different exhibits in here for a year. we got the 50th championship down. and we said what are we going to do. we decided that we have so many in things in our vault that we don't show people. let's bring some of ours out and show them. >> reporter: real quickly, let's talk about the silver tea set that was given to johnny unite is. tell me about it.

they could get a ring or a tea seat. why did he take a tea set over a championship ring? >> john decided that the first year he took the ring. the second year he decided to take the tea service for his family. the secret is he got all 3. >> reporter: he used this tea seat personally. >> his family said he drank coffee out of it. >> reporter: i'm glad he got all 3, i don't know if i would have taken the tea set. the rolex sounds pretty good. you have to check all of our treasure things from the museum. you can get all of information by logging on to foxbaltimore.com which is foxbaltimore.com. if you have a free day, come on down, the weather will have flurries in the morning and decreasing clouds. the high temperature of 37 degrees, turning partly sunny in the afternoon. for a look at the full forecast and a chance of snow showers early friday morning let's head to steve in the sky watch center. thank you, jessica.

we're hoping that this weekend, the ravens are not creating new sports legend and creating a new tradition. jessica was indicating that there's flurries and more on the way. here is what we right now. we do have a few flurries out there and get a little closer and take a look at where. we are not seeing a lot of area that is being covered by snow. we are seeing snow flurries in spots and it has been a couple of snow bursts. candace is indicating that, in the northern part of the baltimore county, you may see more activity and suddenly it looks like you may be getting a whole lot. it will be quickly getting through. the biggest issue will be what is coming behind us the alberta clipper. tuesday night and overnight into friday. here is what we're seeing. see more areas, baltimore county, further points west, we are seeing more today. as you go further points west, you will see the help of the mountains producing more in way of accumulating snow possible there for today. the accumulating snow to follow may affect all of us. ta may be due to an alberta

clipper moving it our general direction. let's take a look at where we have the weather advisory for the western part of allegheny county. further points west in garrett county, a winter storm warning. those are the areas that we're concerned about. that is why we have seen school closings out toward garrett county. for rest of us it's cold no matter where you go. 30 degrees in baltimore, 29 in hagerstown, how about oakland, the 14-degree reading there. we get the northwesterly flow, and a couple of snow showers, you see the deeper shades indicated by the gray. it allows for the wind to make it feel chillier. snow showers for the western part of the state especially for today but what will follow is the blue area coming our way. with the cold air in place, it will mean snow showers we will get especially into the overnight period on thursday into early friday. it could be a commute on friday morning even if the accumulation totals won't be too high.

the low pressure that will be moving the alberta clipper through our region for thursday night into your friday. look for the chance of 1-2 inches for the central counties. it could be more, 2-3 inches for the western counties and 1-2 on the southern part of the eastern shore. don't be surprised with the flurries out there as i mentioned but not the accumulating snow yet. windchills of 10-20 miles per hour with a high of 37. further points west chillier there, 33 degrees for the high with the snow showers that could have accumulation. 33 degrees for the overnight low with partly cloudy skies. the skies clear out overnight. 36 tomorrow, clouds begin to move back in as the clipper moves in our direction. in comes snow showers on friday. friday morning the most vulnerable time for the possible roadway problems. partly cloudy as we dry out for the weekend, 30 degrees still chilly for monday, and 30 and 40 degrees for the monday and tuesday. fox 45 sky watch weather is at

your finger tips. you can use fox 45 powerful doppler radar to track incoming storms. go to foxbaltimore.com and click on iradar. now candace dold is back with another look at the traffic edge. candace. >> reporter: thank you, steve. checking on the actual speeds out there and it's looking pretty good on many of the main lines. 61 miles per hour on through the parkville region and 63 near the 395 exit. look at that, now it's 39 miles per hour traveling through the whitemarsh region. that is definitely going to be the slowest spot out there. another slow spot is on 83 and northern baltimore county, the snow is really coming down there. the good news is it's not actually sticking to the roads, it's just that grass. really not causing any major problems but again because it's coming down at such a fast pace. be aware it's going to be slower than it usually is there. no incidents to report from harford moving toward hunt

valley and eventually hitting the cockeysville area and a little bit farther down traveling before the sick 95 exit, we can -- 695 exit, we can show you scene there. southbound lanes we have a lot of cars that are starting to bunch up approaching the 695 exit. on the beltway, it's going to be problem-free moving through the pikesville region showing you greenspring avenue, right now, here it is. you can see a lot of cars that are starting to filter in. again no brake lights to talk about in either direction. we do have an accident on 795 this morning. it's on the northbound lanes approaching the owings mills boulevard exit. just use reisterstown road for your alternate route. that's a look at the morning commute. back over to you. debt settlement schemes what homeowners should look out for when a company claims they can help renegotiate loans. and the raven prepare for another meeting with tom brady and patriots. how they're

good morning, everybody. here is your first look at sports. as the ravens prepare to take on the patriots, they're fully aware that they're not just against 11 men on the feel. they have to deal with several more wearing striped shirts. it's not exactly a secret. tom brady gets special consideration from the referee. all you have to do is hearken back to the flag fest between

the two teams back in october. despite that, john harbaugh says they're not going to change the way they play defense. >> we're not going to target a guy's inchingies, bu injuries, g to try to hit the quarterback. the quarterback holds on to the ball too long, and they don't protect it, we will have a chance to hit that. we will try to keep doing that. >> reporter: elsewhere, big news out of the baseball world. pitcher andy johnson announced his retirement after two major seasons. he announced the fumble and won the sigh young award 5 times in his career including a remarkable 4 in a row. the all-star, johnson pitched 2 no hitters including a perfect game. he ranked second with 4875. the 46 years old, was comvp when

the diamondbacks beat the yankees in 7 games. a loss for gary williams. sigh mu choi is quitting the team. the combination of athletics and academics was too much for him to handle. first step, he feeds james anderson for the transition layup giving the cowboys an early lead. coleman gets the ball in the post. coleman had 13, down by 3. late first half, cowboys are on the run. the light percentage shot, led bthe state. anderson in the corner, he nails the 3 pointer. he had 26, oklahoma state up by 20. they go on to beat and drop the eagles to 5-7 on the year. and breaking news, late last

night, ap reported that the redskins and mike

a lot of people have managed to rack up more debt than they can handle. when they do that, they turn to settlement companies that allow you to setting your debts with pennies on the dollar. a lot of times it's scams. how can you tell the difference? tell about what debt settlement is, how it works? >> it's before you get to bankruptcy. it's an alternative to bankruptcy. it's for people who have more than $10,000 in unsecured debt and they are not able to make their minimum payments. they're looking for an

alternative. you will make one payment a month to a 3rd party. that money is put into escrow. they -- and because you stop paying creditors, they now have leverage to negotiator settle on your behalf that debt. you may owe by thousand, yo 50,d up paying 25,000. >> what is good about those companies. what ise is bad about your companies? >> what they can do is help you eliminate your debt and get it off of your report earlier than bankruptcy. >> it's still not good if you pay the 25,000. >> because you're not paying your creditors, this he debt settlement program doesn't stop your creditors from calling you and harassing you for collection and even taking you to court. you got to deal to them while paying to this one party. they can still harass you or try

to collect the debt, not har as rase buharassbut still try to ce debt. >> your reporting initial debt could escalate because you're not paying on it and that gets reported to the credit reporting rating. so your credit rating will plummet, your debt can actually soar. so that can happen. >> some of these companies are flat out scams where they take your money and never pay it to anybody? >> the business model is sometimes driven that you're going to pay lot of up front fees. you will pay monthly maintenance fees and you can end up paying the first tie few months, nothig but fees to the business. you're not paying on your debt. if they do settle, a lot of people don't realize, now the irs, could considers that income. so you could pay taxes on anything that they do. and again, and again, you are not paying your creditors. it will so impact your credit

rating. a lot of people don't understand the contracts. they do not know what they're getting into. that is the biggest problem that the better business bureau have seen. people don't understand, and all a sudden it's worse. >> do it yourself if you can. it's confusing and complicated. >> if you would like for more information on the better business bureau, log on to our website at foxbaltimore.com/morning. coming up later on fox 45 morning news. several of the jurors in mayor dixon's theft trial prepare to head back to court. a preview of what is a a a ahear them as a mistrial hearing begins. >> reporter: it might look like the end zone but it's actually city hall. i'm joel d smith, they have painted the town purple for the

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we have a school closing to tell you about this morning. garrett county schools are now closed this morning. earlier we were reporting they had a two-hour delay, but the system has changed that and they are now closed for the day. meteorologist steve fertig is here with a look forecast and snow is playing a part of the reason why they're closed. northern part of the baltimore county, we are seeing but most of the activity will be to the west. that is where we are seeing a bit of accumulation. we do have a winter weather advisory for the western part of gal a aallegheny county.

a winter storm warning until 7:00 tonight so that area most vulnerable of any kind of accumulation. accumulation of a couple of inches, but for the rest of us we are talking about accumulation on thursday evening to friday morning. we see the wider shades indicating a couple of flurries and the northwesterly flow keeping us chilly. 29 in salisbury and the same for hagerstown out to the west. that is has been cold, 16 degrees in oakland, feeling chillier with the winds of 10-15 miles per hour making it feel like only two degrees out to the west. a chilly start to the shore today. look for a high temperature, for 37 degrees. but with the 10-15-mile-an-hour wind, it's going to be feeling cold for a while longerment when he willonger.we will talk abouth

longer. >> reporter: feeling like two degrees out in the west. well, the speeds are pretty far down if you're traveling on parts of the beltway this morning. take a look at 695, here it is at harford road. we have stop and go delays that are stacked from parkville moving toward towson. the entire stretch from 95 up toward 83 running pretty slow. a 3-minute-delay, 14 minutes for the actual time and now at 42 miles per hour. a little farther down from 83 up toward 795, that volume is increasing there. 8 minutes at 52 miles per hour. the west side, well, that is where a lot of cars are starting to filter in from 795 toward 95, a 12 minute clip at 55 miles per hour. if you're traveling through the city this morning, southbound 95 from the fort mchenry tunnel, heading toward the beltway, an 8-minute ride at 52 miles per hour. that's a look at the morning commute, patrice, back over to you.

five of the 12 jurors who convicted mayor sheila dixon of embezzlement will be in court this morning and this time they're the ones answering the questions. megan gilliland has the latest from city hall, good morning, mess ran. >> reporter: good morning, patrice. on the eve of this hearing, mayor sheila dixon told the sun that the prospect of stepping down as mayor is quote not the best feeling. that could become a reality if her defense team is not able to convince the judge today that she did not receive a fair trial. the defense alleges five of the 12 jurors became friends on facebook and talked on the case on the social networking site while the trial was still going on. judge sweeney ordered they return back to court with print outs of the facebook conversations today. he asked them not continue talking about the case online. since then, the five have fired back joking among themselves on facebook, saying they need to act as though they don't know each other. >> it depends on what they're saying. if all they're saying is we have to go back tomorrow, see you

tomorrow, you know today was a tough day, probably has no bearing whatsoever. if they really got down to the nitty gritty, this is how we're going to influence juror x, or this is why we're going to do this or this is how we're going to do that, it could have a real significant bearing. there's no indication of that at this point. >> reporter: some jurors will be asked about not fully disclosing information during jury selection. there's a chance they might have to take the stand today. dixon's defense is hoping to prove that the mayor did not receive a fair trial and as a result get the guilty verdict thrown out. at this point she is still scheduled to be sentenced on january 21st. from city hall, megan gilliland, fox 45 morning news. a 14-year-old girl is hit and killed by an amtrak train on her way to school. it happened in middle river. police say ann mary stickle missed her school bus and was taking a shortcut with her

friend to kenwood high school. the friend was able to jump out of the way but stickle was hit and killed. baltimore county police and amtrak are still investigating. neighbors say children are utinley seen walking on the tracks in that area even though there's fences and warning signs. we want to know what you think. should train companies be more responsible for making sure people don't have access to the tracks? it's our question of the day. the phone lines are open now (410)481-4545. you can also go to foxbaltimore.com and tell us what you think or sound off through facebook. send us a tweet at fox baltimore or you can text your answer to 45203, enter fox 45a for yes or fox 45b for no. the board of public works gets ready for a vote on a slots contract that was pushed back from last month. the board will take up a $21 million bid submitted by g tech corporation. the company wants to spear head

the creation of a computer monitoring system that would oversee slots operation in maryland. comptroller peter fra franchot convinced board to delay approval because it's still not clear when slots will come to the states the marylanders will the marylanders will have to wait. the auction has been moved. magna entertainment is trying to sell it as part of his company. they want to make sure that the winning bidder keeps the preakness right here in maryla maryland. from the tower to city hall the passion for purple is taking hold of the city. the ravens are painting the town purple to get fans excited foreplayoffs. in this town it doesn't take much. joel d smith is live at city

hall near the newly painted logo. people are excited logo or not, we're in the playoffs. >> reporter: a couple of days away. some people want to go to the game still. we will tell you how to do that. we have the owner of nsast. >> i'm practicing being cold for the weekend. we have a couple of buses going occupy. i sense that people aren't excited as they have in the past. people don't think we can win the super bowl but we can. >> reporter: people still want to go, how can they go. >> we are giving a free trip at our website. our the trip is available at $4, we're staying at the hilton. we're staying at providence, close enough 20 minutes away. we're taking the bus saturday and be very, very cold on sunday and hopefully, very happy on sunday night. >> reporter: right now i'm getting a wrap.

tell me how we're going to win. >> just going to run the ball and get after tom brady. 28-23 ravens. that's a beautiful purple. >> reporter: we're live at city hall, joel d smith, fox 45 morning news. governor martin o'malley is preparing to wish the ravens lucas they head into the playoffs. the governor will head to the team's training complex at owings mills later this afternoon to meet with the players and the coaching staff. it's been a tradition to wish them luck as they get into the playoffs. he started back when he wa was a mayor. bruce cunningham will have live reports on saturday, and sunday night and in sports unlimited. coming up green appliances claiming to save you money. the washer is up to 70% more efficient than the machine it's replacing. find out if they will really make a difference on your

monthly household bill. we are monitoring conditions on the roadways. check out 695 on route 40, we do have a long slow backup there. i will show you breakfasts. i got breakfastses here. real cheap. don't settle for a knockoff breakfast. save money with a dunkin' donuts egg and cheese sandwich for just 99 cents. try it with egg whites today.

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welcome back. 7:41 on this wednesday morning. we see flurries around. a couple of snow bursts that make it look like that it's going to be more active. a few flurries are making the roadways more slippery. blue areas indicating snow showers right now in the northern part of the state, not seeing a whole lot of activity. back toward the central part of the state in baltimore county we saw snow flurries earlier. everything that is not showing up on the radar will be light indeed. an indication of the snow that has been moving through the area. flurries today, more toward the west and higher elevations the better chance. that's why we do have an advicery and a warning to tell you about. let's take a look at that right now as we take a look at the winter weather advisory. that's for the western part of allegheny county. again, the mountains helping create up slope and the 8 of those mountains helping to produce more of an accumulation

there, maybe a couple of inches possible. for the rest of us, here is what we're dealing with, 13 degrees, in dover delaware, 30 degrees in baltimore, 29 in hagerstown. out toward oakland 16 degrees there. you throw the 10-15-mile winds out of the northwest, 2 degrees in oakland is what it feels like. 18 in hagerstown, 19 in salisbury. the wind taking the heat away from the body and that is why it feels relatively cold compared to the actual temperatures. it's cold no matter what even without the winds. you throw in the winds it's really chilly. the future scan indicating the blue area to the west especially today. we are keeping an eye on the next area of blue so to speak. that is an indication of snow on the way. the snow fall moving into the western part of the state thanks to the alberta clipper that moves through on late thursday and into friday morning. western counties may be thursday evening, but the rest of the northern part of the state and even the southern part of the state as we get toward

10:00 p.m. and overnight as i said the accumulating snow fall that may bring us a few inches of snow fall before it's all said and done with. let's take a look at the tolls that we expect to see. 1-2 inches further points west, 6-3 inches and down toward the southern part of the eastern shore, 1-3. we may have to up the totals a little bit. we will keep an eye on the system to see if it holds together and has strength as it moves into the overnight period. as we back up to today's forecast in the eastern shore with a chance for a few flurries lingering there. northwest wind at 10-15 miles per hour. that brings us the snow showers, the central part of the state getting up to 37 degrees with the snow flurries. a couple of snow bursts that have moved through. northwest wind at 10-20-mile-an-hour here. that 10-20-mile-an-hour wind will make it feel lick it's below freezing -- like it's below freezing. chillier still and a better chance of accumulation with a 15-20-mile-an-hour wind. you can expect that to make it feel like it's in the twenties s

instead of the low 30s. northwest wind at 10-15 miles per hour. breezy and cold especially as the skies begin to clear out overnight it turns partly cloudy. expect the clouds to quickly increase into the late morning and early afternoon and followed bit snow showers that begin to move into the western counties. as i said overnight into, i think, friday morning, being the most active period for the snow. that can mean a messy commute for friday morning. we will be keeping an eye on the system. tapering off, and drier days for saturday and sunday, partly cloudy and mostly clear on sunday, but that doesn't help much. 30 degrees for the high. 34 and 36 for monday and tuesday with mostly clear skies. now let's see what is happening on the roadways with candace dold. she is here with the traffic edge. candace. >> reporter: thank you, steve. well, the speeds are decreasing out on the roadways. check it out right now part of the beltway 43 miles per hour. traveling right through the parkville area, and at 58 at the jfx and look at west side, right

now at 35 miles per hour traveling right through the catonsville region. now we do want to talk about 95 this morning. we actually have some wooden boxes that are blocking the right lane of southbound 95. it's right at 195 right near the airport. so just be aware that, of course, you will find them there, but we won't have major delays to report as a result of that. now 95 traveling through the city right now, we do have a bit of a slow down coming out of the fort mchenry tunnel. we can show you the scene at the sky rams, the traffic is flowing freely, the northbound lanes and the northbound -- the southbound lanes and the northbound stretch. whitemarsh boulevard and what that scene looks like, and the usually difficult ride, not so difficult this morning. and those cars are coasting along there, southbound and northbound lanes. now it is a way to go on the corridor moving through the harford county region and that's because we have an accident in arbetter denaberdeen, at route t

route 70. still ahead a 14-year-old girl is hit and killed by an amtrak train while thackin takia shortcut to school. we want to know what you think. should train companies be sure

>>a teenager dies after being hit by an amtrak train. the 14-year-ol 14-year-old misss and was trying to take a shortcut to school. neighbors say children are routinely seen walking on that area even though there's fences on the site. that brings us to the question of the day. should train companies make sure that people don't have access to

the tracks. our first caller is keith. >> good morning, keith. >> what do you think about this incident? >> it's a tragic incident, but unfortunately, these are public train stations and this is only so much that can be done. there's warning signs near the amtrak. i think the parents need to take an active role making sure that children know how dangerous this is. they could provide better pedestrian bridges and better crossing sections. >> thank you for your call. i think some others feel the same way you do. let's take a look at the facebook page and let's see what folks there are saying. we had a ton of responses on facebook. barbara, enough signs and fences are in place, people need to exercise common sense and parents to watch their children. i feel bad for the girl and her family, but we cannot bubble wrap the entire world. people need to learn. >> another person on facebook said, the train company did all it can to warn people of the

danger. the kids these days need to exercise common sense, same as all of us did to survive growing up and we had less warning than that back in the '70s. >> so far about 19% of you say, yes the train company should have done more, but the majority of you say the responsibility is with the individuals. thank you so much for all of your responses and calls this morning. coming up later on fox 45 morning news. another season of american idol is about to get underway. >> i'm lost ♪ ♪ in this little game >> stay tuned for a preview of season 9. the washer is up to 70% more efficient than the machine it's replacing. coming up next, green appliances can cost more up front but do they sa

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they promise to help save you money and the environment, but do green appliances really keep green in your wallet. we put them to the will it work test. 450 loads of laundry is what the average family does in a year. so saving money on every load is music to your wallet. >> the washer is 70% more efficient than the machine it's replacing. >> these washers have the seal label. they rate the appliances on the energy efficiency. they typically cost more but energy star say consumers save in the long run. not everyone thinks it's so easy being green. >> the manufacturers themselves supply information to the government. the government isn't checking it or having an independent 3rd party certify what the manufacturers are giving to them is correct. >> still energy star says energy efficient washers could cut a

family's laundry water bill in half and the energy laundry cost in a 3rd. >> it's been an incredibly effective program in saving both consumers and businesses dollars on their energy bills. last year alone americans saved $19 billion on their energy bills. >> some say the savings are all about timing. if your current washer is more than 10 years old, energy star says you could save up to $135 a year on your utility bills. but that number goes down with the age of your machine. retailers say their customers think the energy star label is worth the gamble. >> we don't think that any of the suppliers would try to see receive the consumers by not living to the standards that are set by the energy star. >> still an internal government audit says the government must do a better job with the program. >> they should enhance the testing we do for products. >> are the higher-up front costs

worth the energy star label. the epa says yes. if you buy a green washer, you will save enough money on water and electricity to pay for the matching water. as for water, you will save enough to fill three swimming pools. it sounds like a deal. for more information about the energy star program, go to foxbaltimore.com and click on news links. coming up in our 8:00 hour, which celebrities have been tweeting this week and what are they saying? find out on tinsel town on twitter. i'm joel d smith at city hall. did you know the ravens are in the playoffs? how could you tell? yep, they are painted the town purple and they're looking for a big win.

next on fox 45 morning news. the letter asked the jurors not to discuss this matter until january 6th. the jurors in the trial of mayor sheila dixon back in court today. why they're talking to a judge about-facebook. it looks like a psa body scan. >> it's the cat suit seen around the world. what tinsel town is saying and not saying on twitter. the good and the best times ♪ we've been through. >> the good, the bad and the really bad. a sneak peek at american idol. say it ain't so. the american idol auditions, oh

my goodness. good morning, it's wednesday, january 6th. i'm patrice harris. good morning, i'm megan gilliland. we have a school closing to tell you about this morning. garrett county schools which are on a two-hour delay are closed for the day. >> right they were on a two-hour delay. we have been reporting that. they switched that. stay home, the snow is coming, we don't want you to be out there. meteorologist steve fertig is here to talk a little bit about the snow. and the snow is not as bad as some the american idol singers. >> maybe not quite as bad. >> we're getting used to it, though. >> we are. we have seen our share of snow. it's going to continue to be with us for the season on and off. we do have a winter storm warning for garrett county. that is why they're taking it more serious with an accumulating snow fall for garrett county that may accumulate a few more inches if not more with the help of the mountains. we're seeing a hupl cup couple e

snow bursts. we're not talking about an accumulation for the majority of today. that dut mean we are not talking about thursday into friday. 27 degrees in the bus stop. if your school is open, it would be a cold start. 27 degrees starting out up to 34 by noon, and 33 after topping out at 37 at 2:00 this afternoon. flurries possible especially this morning. the bigger snow on the way. we will talk about that as far as how much, in just a few minutes from now. let's see what is happening on the roadways with candace dold. she is he here with the traffic edge. candace. >> reporter: thank you steve. we goat word of a new -- got wort of a new incident out there. it's a tractor fire. we will keep you updated on this as soon as we get more information. we want to show you what the scene looks like if you want to look at it.

here it is almost a parking lot on the outer loop lanes, just a straight stack of cars and that is the same deal heading all the way town toward towson. now taking it from 83, up toward 795, much better news there. an 8 minute clip at 54 miles per hour. and that west side, now at 50 miles per hour with just a 12-minute ride from 795 down toward 95. that's a look at your morning travels. megan, back over to you five jurors in mayor sheila dixon's theft trial wil theft td back to court to answer questions about misconduct involving phase book. some the jurors talked with each other about the case while the trial was going on facebook. the judge asked the jurors to appear with the printout of the facebook conversations. he also told them to stop talking about the case, but since then, there have been more posts, including one that curses

the judge. >> i think had judge sweeney had said, i do not want you to communicate to each other and not talk to each other and no more facebook until you come back to court. that would have made it clear to every juror that they have to seize communication. this is going to be a hotly contesting hearing on wednesday. some jurors will be asked about not fully disclosing information during jury selection. there's a chance they might have to take the stand today. dixon's attorneys are hoping today's hearing will lead to a new trial. for now, the mayor is scheduled to be sentenced january 21st. a 14-year-old girl is hit and killed by an amtrak train on her way to school. it happened yesterday morning on the tracks near old arms road in middle river. police a ann mary stickle missed her school bus and was taking a shortcut with friends to kenwood high school. the friend was able to jump out of the way but stickle was hit

and killed. people don't take caution. young kids, they don't think nothing is going to happen to them but it does. >> grief counselors were at the school yesterday where stickles brother also attends. baltimore county police and amtrak are still investigating. a registered sex offender released from prison months ago is once again accused of abuse. this time assaulting an 8-year-old girl at a baltimore church. 46 years old rodney keith is charged with several counts, including child abuse and sexual assault of a minor. key allegedly fondled the little girl while at work. he was hired by st. january episcopal church, and work with children in the parish. keys had just gotten out of prison in april after serving 8 years on a 15 year sentence for child sex abuse. >> you got to make sure that the children are covered. at the same time, let's say

someone is helping out and you don't have the background, then you would never leave the child alone with them. that is kind of common sense to me. >> there's no word on whether the church did a background check before hiring him. a former state lawmaker plans to announce his candacey for governor today. owings served as former governor ehrlich's secretary of veterans affairs. congressman frank kratovil had competition in maryland's first district race. andy harris will run against kratovil. harris lost a close race in 2008 to kratovil, the first democrat to win the district in 18 years. maryland's first congressional district includes the eastern shore and parts of anne arundel, baltimore and harford county. just in case you're one of the very few people in the city

who don't follow the ravens, this week the team and the town are giving you no chance but to take notice. >> the ravens are literally painting the town purple for the playoffs and joel d smith is live at city hall near some of the newest artwork there, now, good morning, joel. >> reporter: good morning, guys. yeah, it looks like the end zone here. you want to catch a pass. we want to tell you that they are painting the town purple and people are excited. how excited are they? let's figure out the barometer. how excited is the city right now? >> i don't think they are as excites as they have been in the past. they have been back in, but they haven't beaten quality teams. a great game they played in new england a couple of months ago. there's no reason why the ravens can't compete this weekend and complete. 9-7 is 9-7. i know we have less people going to new england in our trip than we thought we would have.

last year in nashville, we took the whole city over. i don't think that it's going to be like that in providence. >> reporter: you - whip a new w game. >> if we're going to indianapolis, they won't have enough purple paint to participant the town. i was on the phone trying to make friends with all of the indianapolis. it could be a big month. let's get excited. i'm wacko for flacco. >> reporter: we certainly. he is says they're going to win using the running game. >> we don't care what game they use, as long as they win the game, how about that? >> reporter: we will wrap up and i think maybe the whole place will be purple next week if we're going to indianapolis. >> i see a parade. >> reporter: okay as lon okay. as long as you're in the front holding the big stick.

>> as long as it's purple. >> reporter: we will be there. >> hopefully we will get al past new england. i everybody saying new england is going to win. >>one game at the time. bruce cunningham is going to be at foxborough in the game against the new england patriots. he will have live reports on saturday and sunday at 10:00 and ports unlimited. coming up jennifer lopez caught a lot of eyes on new year's eve. we will talk about that icatching cat suit in tinsel town on twitter. and i'm jessica starr coming up this morning on the hometown hot spot, i'm going to take you inside of the new exhibit at the

>>the ravens are in the playoffs and charm city is painted with purple pride. in you're a maryland sports fan, we got a must-city exhibit for you. >> meteorologist jessica starr is live with the details at the sports legend museum. good morning, jess. >> reporter: good morning, guys. there's so many fascinating exhibits at the sports museum. you definitely need to come down and check it out. to get more information we are joined by the executive director

john gib inns, good morning. >> where did you get inspiration to do this. you're talking to me about a vault? >> this literally is an exhibit from treasures from our attic which would be the archives or vaults where we keep artifacts when they're not on display. we had so many profound things that had not been on the public, that we thought, why don't we present this to the public, because it's a treasure kind of exhibit. it's 1 of the most exciting exhibits that we have ever put on. it's great stuff and people are going to have a great time looking at it. >> reporter: tell me about this emmy wh and who received ts emmy. >> the famous broadcaster coming our of our region is jim mckay. he is best known for the coverage of the olympics for many, many years. jim was the olympic voice, the face the image we saw. this emmy award he won for the coverage of the 1972 olympics in

munich. maybe one of the most profound broafbroadcasting performance e, is when he had to announce that the israeli athletes had been murdered in munich. he had to go on the air and announce this to the world. he won that emmy for that. it was one of the most profound things ever. >> reporter: you will have to come down yourself, this is one of the unique and fascinating things that you can see and experience for yourself. you can get all of the information by logging on to your website which is foxbaltimore.com/morning. if you want to come down today, we will see flurries in the morning. decreasing clouds, partly sunny clouds later in the day. for a look at the forecast today and a chance of snow showers by early friday morning, let's head to steve in the sky watch center. >> reporter: jessica, i see one of those ska tiewt statutesg

your way. you have got the right 98. -- name jessica starr. we have seen a couple of bursts of snow which has produced more activity for northern baltimore earlier. not a whole lot left over. slippery roads in spots with the flurries moving through. the activity has been further points west, not seeing a whole lot going on there now but to the west, we have a little more activity and the possibility of accumulation. you see the snow hours from earlier today, you will see more along i-70 toward hagerstown and further points west still. in fact, as you go further west toward -- to garrett county, that is where we're seeing a chance for accumulating snow fall that will continue later this morning. winter weather advisory for the western part of allegheny county and the winter tomorrow warning until 7:30 tonight. there's a chance for more accumulating there with the hope of up slope mountain. that may all change where most

of us will get into the act by later on this week as early as later tomorrow evening and overnight tomorrow morning. 29 down in salisbury and a hurry to get in the act there. out toward oakland where it's been chilly all morning, 16 degrees and the winds it's feeling a bit chillier as if we were in the single digits. the northwesterly flow, thanks to the high pressure northwest, the northwesterly flow bringing us the cold temperatures, and the blue area indicating snow showers this morning. as you can see, as we move into the timeframe of tomorrow, later in the day, around 7:00 p.m., western counties get more involved in a huge area of blue indicating snow moving toward us for overnight at 10:00 p.m. for the central counties. overnight into friday morning when the roads could especially be slippery. you want to consider that as you head out on friday morning to give you extra time. right now, we are putting things into motion. it's cold air that will be in place. a lot of cold air to the central

plains and northern plains, and the pressure, the clipper comes our way and brings us the chance of snow showers. this is not a coastal low, like the one that brought us the blizzard of '09. 3-6 inches to the western part of the state. for today the eastern shore with 36 degrees. could be a couple of light flurries into the evening, the central part of the state, up to 37 degrees and the morning flurries possible there. we may see sunshine breaking through the clouds. 15-25-mil-mile-an-hour wind with the snow. a chance better there. a breezy and cold one tonight with a 15-20-mile-an-hour wind. in comes the snow late tomorrow night especially into friday morning. 32 for the high on friday, so again the best chance then. 29 degrees, partly cloudy for saturday, sunday clear with 30 degrees for the high. 34 and 36 for the monday and tuesday. fox 45 sky watch weather is at finger tips. i-raid is available at

foxbaltimore.com. can you use fox 45 powerful doppler radar to track incoming storlz. the interactive tools will let you see when rain and snow will be over your house. go to foxbaltimore.com and click on iradar. as far as what is happening on the roadways, candace dold has the answer. candace. >> reporter: the checking in n the main lines, look at the speed on 95 at 45 miles per hour. so we still have a little bit of a slow go right there. the top end of the beltway moving at 60 miles per hour on part of the parkville region, but it definitely slows down moving through towson . it's because of a tractor trailer fire on the outer loop lanes of the beltway. that is approaching 83 so again a lot of crews on the scene there. we will continue to keep you up-to-date on that one as soon as we get more information for you. on 83, a report of an accident on the southbound lanes at cold spring lane. no lane or road closures as a result of that one. but again, just be aware ta there's flashing lights there as well. inside of the city an accident on 33rd street right at alameda

and yet another crash to talk about on martin luther king boulevard. the good news is this one is finally clearing out right at druid hill avenue. as for the main lines, check in on 95, near the 395 area, here it is and that traffic is flowing freely, but the southbound and northbound lanes of 95, but actually approaching the city on 395, well, that is a bit of a different story. reduced speeds there all the way down toward the sky ramp. that's a look at the morning travels, patrice and megan, over to you. coming up the ravens are back in the playoffs. the hollywood star that is so excited about it in tinsel town on

it is that time of the week time for tinsel town on twitter. we're scanning twitter and

bringing the hottest news from hollywood to baltimore. >> we're talking about the j lo, the cat suit. >> let's get right to it. it really was quite the spectacle. take a look at j lo's cat suit. she wore it during her appearance. many people around the country were completely shocked and are still talking. so i decided to check out j.lo's twitter page for comment. she is not talking about. on january second, she says better late than never but happy new year. looking at what this decades brings starting with 2010. >> you expect them to come out with a little bit of -- >> there's a lot of other things that we have seen that are worse. >> she wanted to show off her body after having the baby. she has been working hard. >> let's move on from that one.

the new year bricks goo year brs for the baltimore ravens. the team and the entire town is excited but so is hollywood hottie stacey kibbler. a friend sent her a tweet that reads on january 23rd, must love your ravens making the playoffs. on january 4th, see says, you know it. everybody is so excited, i mean who can't be? right? >> that is true. >> yes. >> and so speaking of playoffs, i must talk about one of my favorite people on twitter. >> i know who you are going to talk did b? -- about. >> the cincinnati bengals want to make their way to the super bowl. off owe cincocho cinco had to t.

>> coming tonight not titanic but ocho tan ic. so let me show you a picture of what he put on twitter his twit pick as it's called. there's this big, yes, there it is. ochotanic. >> that is kind of funny. >> before the game, but he quickly stopped talking smack. instead he twitted this about defender rivas. look at january 4th, at 6:30 lost on riva island. >> i was going to ask that -- i he really likes twitter. >> you're always coming back with what he says. >> it's total lie marketing scheme. i -- totally a marketing scheme. i have seen him on other shows, this is how people get to know me. >> you got to admit it, he is hilarious. we want to keep you up-to-date on the latest weather from here

or baltimore. just follow us on foxbaltimore.com and click on twitter under the community feature section. coming up gaining a little weight isn't an option for some people. it's a very ugly thing that they're doing. it's hideous. >> what one dating site does if its clients eat too many sweets. ♪ ♪ sticks and stone are never going to hurt me ♪ >> it's almost here again. american idol just days away now. we will hear from the mer satisfaction

by j.d. power and associates. and don't miss out on your chance to watch the big game in fios hd. you won't believe how much better football looks with fios. but you've got to call today. get jaw-dropping fios tv, america's highest rated internet, and unlimited nationwide calling for just $99.99 a month. plus a special double bonus: $150 back plus a free multi-room dvr for 3 months. don't wait. offer ends january 16th. call 1.866.699.fios. call the verizon center for customers with disabilities at 800.974.6006 tty/v. this is fios. this is big.

take a stand against slavery in africa.

one local musician is doing just that. joshua dibs was instan invited y at a musical trip. he is combining his trip. good morning to you. >> hi. >> your most recent album was rated number 1 by spin and that a huge, huge honor. what do you think about that? >> that is incredible. we started playing music as kids in baltimore and to get to point where anybody seems to find it that influential. that is pretty amazing. >> you have nine albums, what kind of music is it? >> it's experimental pop music. >> it fires everyone. >> it definitely pulls from a lot of sources. >> the biggest news is being vieteinvited at this musical trn africa? >> yeah, i have wanted to go there a long time. there's a lot of music that i have been a big fan for a number

of years. when we found out we had this opportunity to go, i kind of just kusmed a kind of just jump. i wasn't prepared to play a show but it seems so incredible. >> you're paring this with an effort to raise awareness. tell us what that is about that you're working toward. >> the whole thing is a process, originally it was me trying to get there. over the course of figuring that out, ways that i could sort of merge what i was doing with the way and to sort of help what was going on there. i spent time researching different organizations and i came across temdet. and they are working to deal with sort of a slavery or sort of indentured servant situation in mally where there's sort of a caste in that country that has no economic opportunities that is bound by labor.

it seems like a worthwhile thing to help out. >> what are you going to do while you're over there? >> mostly i will be a guest the festival which outside of tim buck too and it's actually a place. this festival lasts for three days and there's going to be a ton of music that is going to be amazing to watch. there's travel to the airport. it's a 2 day trip by land from the city that i will fly into. i will be in a van a lot of time and a couple much days. we will see what happens. i will get to meet the guy that founded the organization which i'm really -- >>we're so proud of and your ambitions. break a leg on stage and thank you for your effort to try to raise awareness for that cause.

your family will love.

perdue frozen chicken. all-white meat. no mystery.

welcome back to fox fry morning news. 8:30 is the time. i'm patrice harris. i'm megan gilliland. a little bit of flurries here other places are seeing a lot more. garrett county schools which were on a two-hour delay are now closed for the day. we are looking 8 lot of snow in that -- a lost know in that area. >> we are looking at how much snow they're going to have and how little snow we're going to have. out to the west they're getting a few inches of snow, it's a lot in comparison to what we're getting which is flicks in the air, i'm talking about snow flakes. what we have as far as temperatures are going. definitely cold enough to support snow anywhere. the disturbance moving through and the help of the up slope mountains avenging th affectingn part of the state. the temperatures to the west, up

in chicago, 10-mile per hour winds. and 10 degrees in indianapolis. a lot of that cold is headed in our general direction. the cold air is here. the disturbance moving through is going to bring us the snow flurries today. it's what is behind this an albert analberta clipper that mn late tomorrow toward friday. by then we're talking about snow as much as 2-3 inches of snow for much not area so we have a few flurries today, really cold and breezy for the most part. not as harsh tomorrow before the arrival of the snow moves in for tomorrow night and into friday. i will have more details coming up in a few minutes. right now we will check on the updates with candace dold. >> reporter: we do want to show you what it looks like out there on 695. here it is at harford road, doing so much better than we were earlier this morning. take a look at that, traffic is pretty much flowing there, but

the inner lanes and outer loop stretch heading toward the towson region. the entire stretch from 95 up toward 83, that is still running a little slow, though, a 4 minute-delay 15 minutes to the actual time and now at 40 miles per hour. now from 795 down toward 95, running pretty normal a 13 minute clip at 47 miles per hour and no complaints running through the city right now. southbound 95 from the fort mchenry tunnel, stretching toward the beltway an 11-minute drive at 13 miles per hour. if you're going to opt from 895 a 9-minute drive now at 55 miles per hour. that's a look at the morning travels, patrice, back over to you. here is a look at our top stories, 5 jurors in mayor sheila dixon theft trial will head back to court this morning to answer questions about possible misconduct involving phase book. dixon's attorneys say some of the jurors talked with each other about the case on facebook while the trial was going on.

the judge order the jurors to appear in court today with pint outs of their conversations on facebook. dixon's attorneys are hoping that today's hearing will lead to a new trial wors. >> reporter: we have the logo. we're at city hall. we're painting the town purple. the playoff atmosphere in the air. people are wondering can the patriots win this year. technically the patriots say they are 3 1/2 point favorites, but last year the ravens were under dogs, too and yes, they won in the playoffs in wild card. president obama says u.s. intelligence failed to connect the dots to prevent a near-miss terror attack on christmas day to make sure it doesn't happen again, the u.s. government has overhauled how it compiles the terrorist watch list and no-fly list. the president says he will stop the transfer of guantanamo detainees to yemen.

he reiterated the plan to close the prison camp. going bdi a good plan this week. they're holding the annual bead show and it wants to strain you along. nancy joins us this morning. you have brought so many beautiful things, good morning. >> let's talk about what is the bead society. i never knew there was such a thing. >> the baltimore national bead society is a non-profit association. it allows us to share our love of jewelry maker and have beaders learn from each other and share that with the community. >> you're putting on a big show. >> we're putting on the annual fundraiser this weekend. >> what is going to be at the show and i'm guessing some of these pieces? >> the show began as a way for us to bring traveling vendors to the region, because often we travel far distance to find our components. the vendors from all over the east coast as far away as tennessee will be coming to our

venue madison interiors to bring the components that we use to create our jewelry. >> wow! if that is the case, if i wanted to make something, could i do it while i'm at the show? >> you can, because this year we will be having mini classes as well as an expert station. those that have never made jewelry will have the ability to anand come and learn how to make things. >> this is pretty elaborate. let me look at that one. how long will something like this take to make. i mean it's gorgeous. >> tnt iisn't it beautiful. one of our members made that. it's exquisite, we drool over this. no, we won't be teaching that on saturday. >> that would take a long time. maybe this one would be easier because there's fewer beads. purple. we are always trying to find purple to wear for purple friday. this would be a great piece. >> reporter: it would take

you more than one lesson. that is a piece made by an artist shannon nelson. she created the beads by mixing polimer clay. and this one looks very intricate because there's so many beads and they have come together to design the picture. >> that's a stitch called paoti. that was woven by one of our members, sandy heinz. she uses the pattern that those beads are so tiny that it's a miracle that she does it. >> i can't imagine if one of these unraveled and the beads start going off and you have to start over. of course, we won't be making anything that intricate this weekend but we will begin learning the basics. >> and some of these intricts will be there for sale. >> that was my next question. thank you for coming in. i learned a lot this morning. if you would like information

about the bead society or the show they're about to have, just log on to our website at foxbaltimore.com/morning. coming up get fit with the stars of so you think you can dance. all right, takin taking it m the top. you can win a free copy of a workout dvd with those stars. and american idol is less than a week away, hard to believe. but we reproduce what to expect in season 9 of the hit

welcome back, 8:40 on this wednesday morning. sky hd radar not looking very active right now. earlier this morning we did see flurries around. we are seeing some dissipating. there could be fine flurries out there this morning. not fine, like they're fine. i mean, they're going to be very

small flurries around. back to west, i'm trying to make this work, because there's nothing much to show you here. here there is, because the composite image. you see the flurries moving into the western part of the state especially there. further points west is where we have seen more activity because with the help of the he slope mountains -- the up slope mountains, it's bringing a chance of more u up lift and flurries accumulating there. elsewhere any flurries you see they won't accumulate, not today. that may be changing as you get into thursday night and into friday morning. to the western part of allegheny county we do have a winter weather advisory and garrett county not pink. the winter storm warning will continue until 7:00 p.m. tonight for garrett county. that is pointing out where the activity has been more prevalent. 30 degrees in baltimore. 30 in hagerstown, 16 only in oakland. you throw in the winds 10-15 miles per hour out of the

west northwest. it's feeling instead like it's three degrees in oakland. very chilly there. it feels like 20 in hagerstown and 19 in salisbury. you get the winds and it takes the heat away from the body and it makes it feel cooler as a result. the temperatures, though, are going to be accompanied by the snow showers to the west for today. a future scan model, we have seen a cul couple of flurries bt the more concern is the alberta clipper. we see more showers accumulatig for tomorrow and friday morning. i think the commute on friday morning could be a bit of a messy one as low pushes through. let's take a look at what we may get out of this. 1-2 inches, but not the coastal snow that brought us the blizzard of 2009. as we begin 2010 we get a little bit avenue kueh of accumulation. we may have to revise this as we get to the system on friday morning. 33 degrees for the high temperature today. any flurries that may linger

there today later in the day will be light. it will be a chilly one nevertheless throughout the area. 37 degrees for the central part of the state with a couple of flurries possible. back to the west we go. here is where we say we could see more activity accumulating. northwest winds 15-20 miles per hour. 25 degrees for the overnight low tonight, a chilly one with a northwest wind at 5-10 or 15 miles an hour. a breezy cold night and as we move through the night look for the temperatures not to climb a whole lot. get to the high of 37 by 2:00 p.m. and back to 33 at 6:00 p.m. in come the snow showers late in the day and overnight, friday morning being the most active timeframe we're thinking. 32 for the high and the snow showers taper off. the weekend looks dry but low. 35 and 36 for monday and tuesday. iradar is available at foxbaltimore.com. you can use fox 45 powerful

doppler radar to track incoming storms. the interactive tools let you see when rain or snow will be over your house. go to foxbaltimore.com and click on iradar. now here is candace dold with a look at your traffic edge. >> reporter: thank you, steve. well, as we near toward the end of this 8:00 hour, right now we're checking in on our your actual speeds. now it's starting to improve out there. 48 miles per hour, right now on 95 traveling right near the whitemarsh boulevard area. 67 on the top end of the beltway moving through parkville and now at 62, traveling right near the 83 up toward pikesville. now we do have an accident, though, to talk about in baltimore county. it completely shuts down the southbound end of greenspring avenue, that is right at kay's road. you will want to use garrison forest road to get around the activity there. better news on the actual main lines. checking in on 695 right at greenspring avenue, the outer loop lanes have been clear this morning. we can show you the scene there. not too much to complain about. now the inner loop lanes,

though, check out the cars are in the yellow approaching the 83 exit. so again, it's the inner loop lanes that we're concerned about right now. the west side of the beltway, right at liberty road it's going to be a smooth sailing on the inner loop lanes and the outer loop direction as well just the sheer volume that you will have to deal with. pretty much a carbon copy traveling through the catonsville area as well. that's a look at the morning commute. patrice and megan over to you. candace, thank you. coming up if you're looking to date but gained a little weight, you could be in trouble. the dating site that says shape up or you're out. do what you want ♪ ♪ but you're never going to >> listen to her. >> it's almost here again. american idol now just days away. we will hear from the show's newest judge ellen degeneres,

>>it is that time of year again. season 9 of american idol premiers next week. this morning we are giving you a sneak peek at what you can expect from the show. i'm the american idol, baby. >> t.v.'s biggest hit shows no sign of slowing down as more than 100,000 hopefuls came out to audition for american idol season 9. >> it's american idol. >> the series evolved over the years but the show managed to please millions of loyal fans. this year there's big changes. paula is gone and replacement ellen de genera degeneres is wio go. but they won't see her until january 9 when they take music week. >> i'm pretty good at spotting the factor that kind of talent and charisma that you need. >> reporter: auditions featured a line up of all-star

guest judges lending an ear and their opinion. first up victoria beck um, also known as posh spice. >> in atlanta, mary jay blige brought her expertise to the judge's table. >> i think it's funny to begin in stages to see people come in with tal errant and with no tal -- talent and with no talent and people that think they have talent. it's amazing and interesting to watch. i'm happy to be here. >> reporter: the always colorful and disfunctional judges are part of the fun of auditions. first to features the good, the bad and the truly horrible. >> you make me rise ♪ ♪ when i fall >> i'm still shaking my head, 9 seasons. i'm going what are they watching? they are seen the show. they have seen what happens and what goes on. i don't get, dude. come on, america!

♪ well, these -- be sure to tune in next tuesday for the season premier. the two hour show starts at 8:00 p.m. right here on fox 45. you know, some people i think tune in just to see the bad of the show. >> of course. >> and i'm horrible but it's so funny watching them. >> i think there should be jail time for family members who tell other family members, you can sing. it should be mandatory sentencing. >> do they see themselves in the mirror and the way they're dancing. >> it's a way to make you feel better and to be seen. >> that makes you feel better? >> some of those people really think they can sing. i think some of them really think they can sing which is amazing. >> i like to sing but i know i can't. when i sing around here and you all are cringing. >> but you wouldn't go to auditions. >> no.

>>i might. >> all right, well we will see what happens in bean town starting on tuesday. coming up if you're looking to date but you gained a little weight, you might be in trouble that is according to a dating website not me. the dating website says you need to shape up or you're out. taking it from the top, here we go. 5, 6, 7. and dancing with the stars of so you think you can dance.

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beauty may only be skin deep. that skin better than stretch an inch if you belong a dating website. >> the website with 13,000 good-looking people is ditching people who put on weight over

the holidays. >> reporter: imagine you are a beautiful person on the dating website called beautiful people and all of that holiday food was too good to resist. >> we have had 9,000 of nearly -- 5,000 members, removed from the site. >> reporter: letting fatties roam the site is a direct threat to our business model. >> it's a very ugly thing that they're doing. it's hideous. >> reporter: you can only become a member of beautiful people if exiting members of the opposite sex vote you on. 5 years ago we did a story on the site. what we need a guinea pig, not him, but me. but despite our best efforts, the photo i submitted was rejected. i didn't stack. at least i'm not alone. 4 out of 5 applicants were rejected by beautiful people.

they're shedding beautiful people that packed on a few pounds. members complain when they meet the actual person. >> and they hadn't looked as they had represented themselves in the initial pictures. >> reporter: that's a shocker, ha? >> it's at least, our members want it to be. >> reporter: mia davis is a plus size model who sees no pluses in this. as you look at the beautiful people, is there anything you want to say to the beautiful people. >> they all deserve each other. >> reporter: we wondered if it could be a publicity stunt. the founder says when he looks in the mirror, he sees this at 7.84. >> how do you look in the mirror if this is the kind of superficial thing that you do. >> it's honest. people want to be with people they are attracted to. >> reporter: those who are kicked off the site can reapply to be voted back on.

but you think even a guinea pig couldn't be a glutton for punishment. it's not a dating thing. >> beauty is in the eye of the beholder. >> i would say, you become more beautiful with personality. >> i think that the people who rye tri out are the same people who try out for american idol on the first few rounds. they have been told so they say. we have been told there's a little bit of snow. >> there's snow out on the western counties. the rest of us could be dealing overnight and into friday morning. it's not like the blizzard of 2009, but a couple of inches to a few itches. wincheses. near 30 and 34 for monday, 36 for tuesday. it's going to be warming back up. >> wow! >> you know, we have to endure the cold temperatures for the next few days so that the raven can get a feel for the cold.

i'm willing to stay cold for the next few days as long as they ka guarantee me a win. >> that is pretty fair. >> we're team players. >> and then it gets hot for miami. >> exactly. >> that's a lot of pressure. >> okay. >> you can get fit with the stars of a hit fox show. >> packing it on from the top. 5, 6, 7. >> as megan dances out next to me. so you think you can dance, get hit cardiofunk and groove show you how to get in shape while outside of the gym. paramount give us copties -- gave us copies to give away. you can win a copy of the dvd, just be the 4th or the 10th caller at (410)481-4545. you can audition for season 7. in new york try outs are january 25th in manhattan. >> megan, be there. >> right up your alley. >> i will be there. i will survive. >> the move. >> i got more than that, wait